"BETTER TO BE LUCKY THAN GOOD"

Anyone who has seriously played at baseball, and has seen a base hit single turn into a triple by a baseball hitting a pebble, knows, full well, the old baseball expression, "it's better to be lucky than good".  A similar expression could be applied in politics.

A case in point is that of Donald Trump and North Korea;  After years of pouring all of North Korea's resources into nuclear weapons, the atomic testing has so damaged their test site that it is unusable and comes at a time when North Korea lacks the resources to build a new one or repair the old one.  They are forced to not only suspend their nuclear program but to consider a complete change in their relationship with the rest of the world.

That this fortuitous event has occurred during the administration of Donald Trump is another example of baseball wisdom.   

A SPURIOUS TALE

A spurious tale is going around that, for Trump, the biggest tragedy is what is happening as the result of the F.B.I. raid on Michael Cohen.  Cohen is said to have been in the middle of negotiations which would have put Trump in the top tier of American Presidents.

Cohen, it is said, was negotiating a Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA) with Vladimir Putin which would have called for the return of Alaska, to Russia, in exchange for all the pictures, plus negatives, of all the Trump hotel room scenes in Moscow.  It is believed that negotiations had already proceeded to the point where all the fictitious names, to be used in the NDA, had been agreed upon.  

MEDDLING IN OUR LEGISLATIVE PROCESS

Despite the fact that no Russian has the right to bear arms, there is much Russian interest in our N.R.A.  The interest seems to extend to large donations to the association.  In turn, this has lead to freeing up of large sums of money for use, by the N.R.A., in Congressional elections.  It is hardly any wonder that despite the number and frequency of gun massacres, no action is taken by our legislators, but a single death of a pet aboard an airplane receives instant attention.

Perhaps our nation needs another Special Counsel to investigate Russian meddling into the Legislative branch of our government, In any event, I'd love to hear Tovarisch Wayne La Pierre explain how unlimited Russian funding is protected by the Second Amendment.

THE ANATOMY OF A "NATIONAL DISGRACE"

Donald Trump has called the raid, on his attorney's office, a "national disgrace".  To those who may not be too clear on the reason Trump feels this way, considering that the request was not made by  Special Counsel Mueller, but by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the real reason Trump is so upset is that the news of the raid is crowding out the relatively good press Trump was enjoying with respects to Syria.  

For months now, Trump has manipulated the press so as to distract from any bad news and the use of this tactic by his foes, even unintentionally, is certainly a "national disgrace".

TRADE DEFICITS

Trump claims that other countries take our money when we run deficits in trade with them.  I am also told that American companies are holding trillions of dollars, offshore so as not to have to pay taxes on income earned abroad.  I wonder if there is any connection between our trade deficits, which run into the billions, and money, in the trillions being held offshore by those American firms.

WHEN THE DOW JONES INDEX BECOMES FAKE NEWS

Should the Dow Jones average fall under what it was during the Obama Administration, Trump may have to call the "Dow" Fake News.  The Trump supporting investor may, then, face a quandry as to whether to believe the Dow or whether to believe Trump.  Should the Dow be believed when it indicates losses or Trump saying that the market is rising.  These are difficult times for Republican investors. 

TRUMP TECHNICALLY CORRECT

Trump was, technically, correct to call Putin and congratulate him on having successfully rigged yet another election, this time in Russia.  There is no doubt that Putin has been on a roll since 2016